Topics:

1. Easter Island: People, Myth, and Place: Easter Island—or Rapa Nui as it is known to its inhabitants—is one of the most remote places on Earth. It’s also one of the most enigmatic, a puzzle with many more questions than answers, where the science, history, and archeology are all disputed. We’ll take a virtual tour to wrestle with its mysteries: why is it even here, an island speck lost in the ocean blue? Who were its first inhabitants: where did they come from, when—and why? Most important, how and why did they build their immense stone statues, or moai, the island’s greatest cultural legacy? More to the point, why did they stop, a question whose answer provides tantalizing lessons for our own times.

2. The Taj Mahal, A Sigh Made Stone: Love, Grief, & Faith: Is the Taj the single most beautiful building on Earth? If you have other candidates, let us know...We’ll explore this sublime monument in depth, walking on a virtual through its lovely gardens and majestic gateway to approach the famous white dome, but also burrowing down to admire its many hidden symbols and glorious decorative details. First, though, we’ll want to know why it’s here; why it’s the culmination of over 1500 years of architectural history; and why it’s a monument both to love—built by an emperor for his wife who died giving birth to her fourteenth child (yep, 14)—and to faith. For this is an Islamic tomb—wait, an Islamic tomb...in a predominantly Hindu country? We’ll find out why...

3. Petra, A Rose–Red City, a Miracle in the Desert: Remember the Indiana Jones movie, the one that can’t resist the pink-stoned beauty of Petra as a backdrop for its all-action hero. Or rather a tiny fragment of Petra, that famous temple front of a million Instagram posts. Because on our virtual tour we’ll learn—and see— that Petra was far more than this single temple; that it was a city the size of Manhattan, with glorious stone-cut monuments that still extend for many miles. But a city the size of New York in the middle of the desert—why would you do that? More to the point, how would you do that? What about water, for a start? Or the money to build, when all you have to sell is sand? Join us to understand this enigma of water and stone, along with the mysterious Nabatean civilization behind it, before we embark on a step-by-step exploration of the site’s most beautiful monuments.

4. Olive Oil: From Tree to Tasting: Olive oil used to be simple: you bought a bottle, any bottle, mixed up a salad dressing or poured some in a pan, and that was it. Not any more. Choosing, using—and tasting—olive oil has become one of the pleasures of eating, with almost as many associated subtleties and variations as choosing and drinking wine. We’ll enjoy a brief introduction to olives, from their 6,000-year-old human history and many hundreds of different varieties to the ways, past and present, in which they have been harvested and turned into oil. Then we’ll look at what makes a good oil—why it is that you want hand-picked, first pressed, and cold-pressed oils, and why as an olive oil you can’t simply be a virgin, you have to be extra virgin.